‘Flesh-eating robot’ is actually a vegetarian, say inventors

It sounded like something pulled straight from a grisly scene in Terminator: an unstoppable military robot that powered itself by devouring everything in its path – including trees, grass and even, according to reports, dead bodies.

But after a string of headlines that labelled the machine a “corpse eater” and “creepy”, the robot’s creators have gone on a PR offensive to extinguish the rumour that their invention will feed on human or animal flesh.

The machine’s inventors say that the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot – known as Eatr for short – does indeed power its “biomass engine” by digesting organic material, but that it is not intended to chomp its way through battlefields of fallen soldiers.

“We completely understand the public’s concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission,” said Harry Schoell, the chief executive of Cyclone Power Technologies, one of the companies behind the machine.